"I grew up not understanding racism — I was never around anything that would have led me to that. All of a sudden I went to the premiere of this film and it struck me so hard. It made me brothers with my fellow man more than any other film that I’ve ever seen. It changed my life. The perspective it gave me was incredible. I don’t have a lot of films that changed my life, but that one made me realize we’re all in this together. Michael Pena is a good friend of mine, and this was the first film that put him on the map. He was so good. When the lights went down in that movie, we were taken away. It was unreal."
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